This is quite sad when you see it, but hey here is items per Diablo game (Excluding DI)

PC General Discussion
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Diablo 4 is suppose to be a game that builds on the previous games in the IP. Better graphics better loot better activities and so much more. Below I have broken down each iteration of the game (excluding Diablo Immortal) to show the devs how shallow this new game is with its development time compared to the rest of the games in the IP.

I also left out runewords from Diablo 2 which is another item group that Diablo 2 has and non of the other games in the series have so no need in adding that group in the table but its a total of 89 runewords. There are also crafted items in Diablo 2, & 3 but I am leaving them out as they arn’t loot gathered by monsters or stuff you kill.

Furthermore, just notice how they all go up and with Diablo 4 they go down. Just goes to show we got a unfinished product. I also ask when are we going to get our set items, season 20? Also they took almost double the development time with 10x the amount of devs working on it compared to the previous games. Yet we have half the items than what Diablo 3 has, why??

Game Title Base/Normal Items Set Items Unique Items Legendary Items, Aspect Items Total Items Developent time to release
Diablo 1 66 0 101 0 162 1995-1996 1year
Diablo 2 493 131 379 0 1003 1997-2000 3years
Diablo 3 564 319 0 560 1443 2006-2010 4years
Diablo 4 700 0 60 132 892 2016-2023 7years

Please Note: Diablo 4 has no way to gather total # of normal items in the game we can judge there would be 1 normal item base per slot for each class with some overlapping items like swords and shields/offhands. So base item number is a guess for Diablo 4. However, I went super high how many there actually are just to help it out but the real number is probably around 300.

Diablo 1 sources:
https://diablo-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Items_(Diablo_I)
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Diablo_(Game)#Development

Diablo 2 sources:
https://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Diablo_II#Development

Diablo 3 sources:
https://us.diablo3.blizzard.com/en-us/item/
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Diablo_III#Development

Diablo 4 sources:
https://www.ign.com/wikis/diablo-4/Aspects_Explained_-_Full_List_of_Legendary_Aspects
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Diablo_IV#Development

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I think the development time is a bit off. To think that D3 didn’t start til 2006, is probably a massive under reporting of years.

In fact, the sequels with regard to development should have been immediately started when the prior one was released, if not earlier.

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who cares the time i think the point is the lack of content and unfinished game

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  • relative to time * - it makes OPS point stronger actually.

I’m not countering.

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Interesting info but you wasted your time to proof whatever you wanted to proof

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I mean it was maybe started with a few people a year or so earlier but I just went off the wiki info <3

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Ahh gotcha, I think it’s much worse than it looks. especially if you increase time frames of development to coincide with the release date of the prior version.

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Yea it probably is honestly. Only blizz could tell us the 100% true start work on said project date so we could get a real accurate gauge but I think my chart is good enough. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Na man its good information for people to know. No time was wasted.

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Hi there. to put some context, i’m a veteran Diablo player that played all these four games far more than i should and liked all of them. That said, i am not a fanboï as i believe and could enumerate their flaws. I remember receiving fireballs in the back from my wizard friend in Diablo I while fighting hordes of demons and drinking 329847678 potions with not enough memory card space on Playstation to save the game. Ah good times. :smiley:

My guess is Diablo IV developers wanted to give the players a way to customize his gear, which explain so many mundane items. But even then, Diablo 3 vastly outshine it in aspects and craftable gear.
There are absolutely no excuse for no set items. :rage:

Now the truth lines with a sarcastic tone that people hate :
Let’s not mention Diablo I,II & III numbers include expansions and downloadable content. That way it appear worse than it actually is. :upside_down_face:
We could also have made a column for gear skins and character customisation, but nah, it would explode the meter in favor of Diablo III & VI. Let’s keep it narrow and cherry-pick the numbers we like so we can whine moar. :wink:
While we’re at it, let’s also not talk about the amount of details, towns, npcs, dialogues, quests, events, etc. because it would hinder the narrative we are trying to push. :scream:
Make sure graphics don’t count as finished content for our libel. :shushing_face:

sarcasm off

Did you ever thought that maybe they invested more on things other than loot ?
Remember when many players were reeing about Diablo 3 being an arcade game with too much action… In… An Action Role Playing Game ?
-Pepperidge Farms remembers.

In conclusion, since the action in Diablo IV is good, maybe the game is more about story, art and roleplay than item farming ?
Just a theory by me playing the devil’s advocate.

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Huh?

Skins and transmogs are not items. This is purly based on items like gear nobody is cherry picking anything.

There is no narrative I am trying to push. It is clear as day that Diablo 4 has far less to offer for itemization than ALL of its predecessors. This means they are going backwards not forwards. It is clear in the numbers I posted.

This thread wasnt about the graphics but if you look at the graphics for each time release they were on par with what the graphics were in those times. You didnt have 4k gaming in 1996 when Diablo 1 came out my guy. Try again though was a nice try to derail thread with this.

I know they invested in more things than loot, its called the cash shop to get more money from you.

No I don’t because that didn’t happen.

I’m ok with it having story, art, and roleplay. With the amount of time they have had developing this game compared to previous iterations it should have itemization and more. Fact is it doesn’t and is far more shallow than any ARPG released to date.

Sorry I hate to be the fact advocate.

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First off, your source for number of legendary aspects that gave you 132? Did you count the rows in the ign page by hand? Because if you look in any of the datamines, there are 230. I don’t know how you got 132, but there’s 115 dungeons, each with an aspect in the codex of power, so if it was 132, there would only be 17 aspects not in the codex of power, which is, of course, not true.

These numbers also only look at items now, long after the release of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3.

Want to know how many uniques Diablo 2 had at release? something like 30 or 40. And they were all normal difficulty items, with a max level req in the 30s, as exceptional and elite grade uniques didn’t exist until the LoD expansion. So they weren’t that great for endgame characters.

And to pre-empt the WeLl WhY dId ThEy NoT jUsT cOpY tHe ItEmS aLrEaDy MaDe FrOm D2 aNd D3?!11one ThEy AlReAdY mAdE aLl ThOsE iTeMs.

Because this is a different game and you can’t just copy-paste the affixes from D2 and D3 into D4.

Also, I really don’t get this belief some people seem to have that higher # of uniques at launch is somehow better. Having a more gradual rollout of uniques and aspects allows people time to experiment with them and will be better for itemization in the long run.

They didn’t. You counted the number of people in the credits and assumed they all worked on it the entire time, rather than realizing that most of them probably weren’t working on the project for 1/10 the period the game was in development.

Let me digress a little to explain how software development works (or any large project or endeavor). You have a core team, and as the project continues, it grows. Subteams are formed to handle different aspects. People join the teams and leave the teams. Outside help is contracted for different work. Specialized teams that are only needed to handle something specific leave the project and move onto other projects.

Let’s take a voice actor for example. Ralph Ineson voices Lorath. You might know him from Game of Thrones (Dagmer Cleftjaw), Harry Potter (Amycus Carrow), or Final Fantasy 16 (Cid). Ralph Ineson is credited for his work on the game. Do you think he worked 7 years on the game? Or do you think it was a couple weeks at best to record his lines?

Lead voice actors always get credit, but a lot of people that only work briefly on a project don’t.

Is listing even the smallest contributions to the game in the game’s credits really something that we should be criticizing?

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Let me summarize:

Diablo 1 multiplayer game - 9.
Diablo 2 - 10
Diablo 3 - 7
Diablo 4 - 2 to 3.
Diablo 5 - idc

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counting the “base” items (for d3/d4) is very generous, if you can even call them that.
it’s basically just different glam.
i mean, a bow is a bow, what visuals the game decided to drop that bow with is irrelevant for it’s use. (obviously looking good is important too, and having choice here is also needed)
it’s damage and affix ranges are dependant on the itempower of the item.

also since you can’t do anything with a base item, it’s even more useless.
like in D2 you’d be: great a monarch shield, i can socket it at larzuk for 4s. or nice a colossus sword, those have the highest base dmg.

i have never looked at any item in D4 and thought “oh thats a nice base” its all just “bow” or “wand” or “sword”.
if you only look at relevant items you’d arrive at <200 with the uniques/aspects which is just sad for an ARPG.

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nevermind
/20 characters

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Google it bud I provided sources if you want to add them by hand yourself be my guess. To quote my source for you

All Aspects In Diablo 4
114 Aspects can be unlocked and stored in your Codex, but there are many more that can only be found from random drops. Of the Codex Aspects, most of them require you to clear dungeons to unlock them, but a few require you to play the main game. They’re also broken up into the following categories:

Scroll down on that page and you will find the “Non-Codex Aspects” section that I did physically count and there are 18 of them plus 114 = 132 which is the exact number I gave in the chart.

Datamine’s find information on items that may have been planned on release or to come out just like Diablo 2 has many runewords in the datamined info that was never put into the game.

The items were there from beginning bro sorry if you dont think so Diablo 2 came out in 2000 and expansion 1 year later that added “runewords” which if you even read my post I EXCLUDED them from the chart for this very reason. Diablo 3 didnt add any new items they just keep changing sets around and they % on them. Now the game is on maintenance mode.

Lies show your source please.

Please just stop you look silly.

Nobody asked for a copy paste my guy. Immortal king set been there in Diablo 2, & 3 im sure they will put it in Diablo 4 at some point but not with the 8 years they have had already (double the time than the other games had in development).

Diablo is a loot hunting game, there is less loot in Diablo 4 than the previous ones excluding Diablo 1. Please sir look at stuff logically and you are not being logical.

Source please or untrue hear say.

I don’t need your explanation you don’t even provide sources for your claims. I have provided facts sorry you cant believe them or come to grips with the whole situation.

Edit: Going to play pool and have drinks since its labor day ill be back to reply in 8 hours or so.

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What do you don’t understand in that ? Older games have expansions and dlc that make bigger numbers compared to a game that have none.

‘‘Each iteration of the game’’ doesn’t mean ‘‘only items’’. Selecting items only is exactly what cherry picking mean.

Your narrative is there. You pretend Diablo IV is an unfinished shallow product. You believe it so hard, you don’t even see it even when you wrote it. :rofl:

[quote=“UberCain-11233, post:10, topic:123710”]

This thread was about you pretending this game is unfinished and shallow compared to the rest of the games in the IP while using items only to prove your point. Graphics are finished and so detailed, they aren’t shallow.

Irrevelent on the subject, but yes, they are a business selling stuff.

Yes it did and a little research that you didn’t do would prove it.

These are not facts. they are your opinions.
I also agreed about items items. What i disagree with is the ‘‘shallow and unfinished product’’ narrative you are trying to push.

You are not the fact advocate. Cherry-picking to make something appear worst than reality is dishonest and how most propaganda is made.

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Does it though. Most times i played the crafted sets were needed only to make farming gear to make earning death breath and keystones more efficient.

Same with maybe early on you combo some set pieces with your first gift greens to again farm faster.

Once you get done with all that, you use the blacksmith to basically trash items.

More than half the reciepes are useless and you find all the loot you need.

I looked up the call of ancients D3 set, Damage multiplers aside, the build looks very stiff and locked in.

D4 i can make a call of ancients “set” my own way it’s The thing thats lacking for some is that uber- power you got.

I wouldn’t mind a little bump on this and more importantly Effects, for example Hell hammer could change all blunt weapon skills not only One. Perhaps.

Again though not its’ paired with the build i cooked up, i like it and there is effects going off everywhere so…maybe it would be too much maybe it wouldn’t idk.

It may have less items on paper, but since the system is trying to be about choice and customizing i would say the trade off is you get more configurations.So the hunt is less individual items.

But you are hunting those upgrades and when you get them that power you dismissed early or failed to hold up in a build idea becomes workable.

Once this clicked for me i understood the hunt, so i understand the fun of it.

Problem is people wanted the game easy, so now it’s not needed for every build to succeeded in clearing the game i guess.

Possible loop holes that where not closed before release. :person_shrugging:

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I kinda agree with you, that’s why i said the sentence before. But Diablo 3 had so much gear. :thinking:

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It did, but like it took years to get one set for a character and build right, to get the pool it is now.

They will do the same with D4. We need to ask ourselves sure it might have been fun having all that loot transferred into the base game.

But where from then, We jumped the progression and expansion, game is busted and a loot pool the size of a plant to deal with.

One hell of a mess.

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the time to gear and how to gear is much faster in D4, d3 without the haedrigs gift, it would take a bit longer to get up and running with a decent build.